Stamp duty

Tomsmum

We're moving house and the stamp duty on the new house is vast. Last time I moved it was barely noticeable and this time it's over £12k. I know, it's a bigger house but still. I've had various pop ups claiming they can save me 50% of the stamp duty. Has anyone found a stamp duty loop hole. The new house is in a conservation area (probably why it's so bleedin' expensive), it's old, um, no can't think of anything else.

Any clues before I wander in to a big time waster? Something I'd simply never heard of before. (the savings, not SD, I'm only a partial numpty)

thanks

Steph

Moomum

Not sure that there is any legal way to get around it, our SD is £30k, it's mad!

F_T_Buyer

I assume you looking to buy a house at £300k? I.e. 4% rate.

There isn't much you can do, I would just barter the house price down as much as you can!

ruggy83

Blimey! And i feel aggrieved at the thought of paying £1500 in stamp duty!

I would imagine that not paying the full rate of stamp duty could be classed as tax fraud, and would probably come back to bite you on the bum eventually.

I've often thought that paying stamp duty would be a lot easier for people if you could pay it in installments. £12k is a lot for somebody to fork out in one lump, what with moving costs factored into the equation at the same time.

googler

A quick bit of research on the internet, including a look at www.hmrc.gov.uk would have provided the answer.....

00ec25

lots of people get sucked into these schemes seeing only the possibility of not paying some of the tax, very few people understand what they are actually signing up to

yes there are schemes, yes some people have avoided paying SDLT at the moment, yes some people have subsequently been caught up with and received a tax demand.

No one can say with certainty whether they have avoided paying SDLT in the long term read the long thread below in which you will see 2 people are being forced to pay up despite originally using a scheme
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2551967

sunshinetours

F_T_Buyer wrote: »

I assume you looking to buy a house at £300k? I.e. 4% rate.

There isn't much you can do, I would just barter the house price down as much as you can!

£400k at 3% I would suggest unlesss they've just snuck the rates up without us noticeing

In answer to OP just search stamp duty mitigation schemes on these forums. Plenty of companies claim they work but you may get a sting in the tail down the line. A saving of £6k wouldn't be enough to warrant the risks involved for me - these schemes were originally aimed at the wealthy (people who could afford penalties and interest basically)

princeofpounds

About the only thing you can do legally is buy the house through an offshore corporation and the sell shares instead of the house when it comes to selling.

Doesn't help with buying, and drastically reduces the number of people interested in any such deals as hassle is greater and protection lower. It also removes the primary residence tax break. So it's really only useful for second homes of foreign oligarchs.

timmyt

they don't work.

Tomsmum

Thanks all! as they say, if it looks too good to be true...